I popped my back, rubbing at my sore body as I walked back into my apartnt. I ended up fighting about a dozen more tis before I left. After the first two fights, the arena’s systems placed my skill level a lot better so that I was fighting people slightly better than , but not too much better than that it was a slaughter. I won four of my thirteen other fights.
Before heading ho, I also went out and copied all of the audio files from my deck over to my phone to listen in on. Hopefully, there was sothing good there. I took a quick shower, washing the sweat and gri from spending so long at the holographic battle arena down the drain. I still had mixed feelings about it, but- well, there was no denying its effects.
「lee Weapons - 3>5」
「Evasion - 3>4」
「Brawling - 1>3」
「Na: Shiro Tsukuyomi
Traits: Fox’s Grace, Quick Healing, Insight
Free Perk Points: 1
Tracking - 7
Stalk
Tech - 8
Eidetic Schematic
Corvid
Stealth - 9
Fox’s Paw
Cold-Blooded
Sleight of Hand - 9
Hidden Hands
Ambidextrous
Perception - 8
Aetherial Perception
Technical Expertise
Net - 3
lee Weapons - 5
1 Pek Point
Local Novice (Little Yukoto)
Intimidation - 3
Firearm - 4
Dexterity
First Aid - 4
Calming
Evasion - 4
1 Perk Point
Driving - 7
Land Vehicles
Deception - 7
Honest Face
Criminology - 7
Cues
Concealnt - 8
Lethargic Presence
Hidden Weapon
Cleaning - 3
Brawling - 3
Accounting - 1
Request Board」
Not too bad. I was technically in the middle of a job, so not quite sure why I leveled in this case. Not that I was complaining. Maybe since the holo arena was entirely unrelated to the actual job? Still so much about the whole interface thing I need to figure out.
Two new Perk Points to spend on top of the Free Perk Point. As for the Free Perk Point, I still wasn’t sure what I wanted to use it on. There were so many options I was still looking through in my free ti. I was leaning towards another Stealth Perk, but throwing it into one of my combat-related Perks would round out my skill set. I was still looking through the list.
There was a Perk in Concealnt I had my eyes on though: Master of Disguise. From the way its description sounded, no one would be able to recognize my face unless I allowed them to. Seed a little too good to be true, especially considering being recognized was one of my biggest issues in so cases. It required Deception and Concealnt to level eight though.
Still, I was carefully pruning through all the Perks to get the best Perk. I was only about halfway through. There might be a hidden Perk sowhere that was better, so I was holding off on spending the Free Perk Point till I looked through the entire archive.
I could spend my Perks later though. I moved over to my cluttered table and once more started to work on the various chanisms I wanted to implant into the Underground. While I worked, I played the audio recordings back at ten tis the speed, idly listening in and slowing it down when I heard sothing of interest.
Most of it was boring office politics or gossip. For instance, I now knew way too much about a manager nad John and how big of a bastard he was. Or how Scar got his scars. Surprisingly tragic story. Or how Stacy got thirteen stab wounds the other week.
That being said, I did get a few fragnts of information. Most of it ca from the bug in the elevator, and the best I could tell based on the elevator’s beeps, the people were so kind of scientists working in a deep sublevel. Or maybe just assistants to scientists. Hard to tell.
Since the conversation was only a fragnt, I didn’t learn much outside of a na: thuze. The man and woman talking about it sounded incredibly fearful even ntioning the project's na.
I heard a few other conversations from down there, and as best I could tell, there was an entire secret lab underneath Cold Moon Solutions. They definitely couldn’t afford one with CMS’s asly inco. It was really beginning to look like so kind of Savant Lab. The thought of CMS turning into a Savant Lab coverup was enough to send a spike of rage through the back of my head.
I’d have to get down there to be sure. And I’d have to get down there to complete the gig. If I broke the projects and deleted their research files, it would surely be a hefty hit to the corporation.
Oddly though, I never once heard the CEO’s voice in the elevator. I’d have to listen in for a few more days to be sure, but there was a high chance he had a private entrance into the lab. Especially knowing how egotistical he was. Or- or he just didn’t go down there. He definitely knew about it, but there was a chance he wasn’t too involved.
I worked late into the night, eventually going to sleep once I finished all of the projects for the Underground.
— — —
I stopped by the roof I had my deck set on before heading back to the speakeasy the next day. I wasn’t expecting much from the audio logs since everyone but security should’ve left by then, but who knows? Maybe the security slipped up when no one was there.
I brought with the rest of my components spread out among a bunch of different bags. Almost everything was ready that could be put together, though I had a bunch of stuff that would need to be assembled on site since I didn’t asure anything beforehand. Naly, the doors.
I got into the speakeasy easily enough. I was already in the apartnt building’s system as a resident, so I had codes for the front door and everything. Then it was as simple as timing my move to the broom closet so no one would see .
First things first, ti to clean this place up. Now, most of the walls were covered in ash. Wipe that off, and the place had pristine brick walls. Sure, so of the bricks were cracked here and there, but the builders back then knew what they were doing with this place. Everything still looked structurally sound.
Most of the tables and chairs were re wire shes of what they used to be. IF--and that was a big if--I ever wanted to actually clean this place up and make it sothing, I’d need to do a full replacent of the booths and everything. There was no salvaging them. The rest of the wood broke apart into ash at barely a touch. The bar was still usable, but it wasn’t in great shape. Good spot to store the rest of my stuff though.
Anyway, here’s what I was thinking. For the short term, I’d move all my crafting stuff here. There was way more space here, and I didn’t have to worry too much about it being found out. That, and it would save from having to go down to the vault any ti I wanted to make anything. I’d still stash any valuables that I might acquire down in the vault itself since it would be the most secure place once I was done.
Before that though, the original door chanism needed to be reworked. Most of it would be fine as is, but I went ahead and replaced so parts with newer 3D-printed variants. I also took apart the initial ripcord system. It was cool, but not the most secure. Anyone could see the marked tiles and co to the sa conclusion as .
In its place, I added a number padlock. Not the safest thing, but I got around that by taking out several bricks from the wall and making it so that the number pad was on the backside of the bricks. Then, by pressing in the right brick, the number pad would flip around and be interactable. I still stand by that the best security is one no one notices.
Pretty simple, all things considered. I carved out so of the bricks around the reversible section, hiding so small rotors and adding in so gearwork and a few tal rods to connect up to the rest of the system. If the right code was punched in, it would activate a servo that basically replaced what the old ripcord did and activate the chanism.
I had to get electricity into the speakeasy for everything to work properly, but that ended up being a nonissue. I had the blueprints of the basent morized to a T, so it was rather easy to tap into the building's electrical systems. So long as I didn’t draw too much electricity, there wouldn’t be an issue. The landlord would just think more people were washing their clothes than usual.
I also threw together a really simple cara system. Nothing too complicated, just used so of the old robotic eyes I had lying around to make everything work. It would need my deck to fully function, but my deck was still out recording audio, so it’d be a bit. I could go out and buy another deck, but I currently didn’t have the liquid funds for it unless I wanted to start cashing in so of the gold.
The noise was still a bit of an issue, but I solved that by painting everything with anechoic paint. It was a clear coat substance that builders used to have the sound-dampening effect a lot of places had. Dirt cheap too. A bucket only cost twenty Rayn.
Then I went to the hallway behind the kitchen and made a dummy wall much like the one that blocked the way into the speakeasy. I had to take apart a wall between two of the private booths to use as material for it to be seamless, but that was fine.
My version was a lot more simplistic compared to the gearwork of the first door. I didn’t need to have mine purely chanical, so I cheated a bit and ran power to the other door. Then I grouted the bricks together with so tal rods to make one large brick door that could swing open and shut.
By then, I heard sothing interesting on the audio logs, so I paused my work and listened in as I took a break. I gulped down so of Sentinel’s Super Supplent from my canteen and wiped the sweat from my brow, rubbing wet ash everywhere. No AC plus a ton of ash made it a very annoying place to work.
It took a bit of searching through the files before I found out that the log ca from the break room early in the morning. Probably two guards taking a breakfast break.
”… I hate being down there.” One guard said. They sounded like a young man. It was an assumption on my part, but I had the feeling they were talking about the secret underground lab.
“You know we aren’t supposed to talk about that place.” An older-sounding guard replied.
”’Course I know that. Not like they’re going to bust down the wall to catch , are they? They haven’t done so in the past… Anyway… you feel it too?”
The older-sounding guy sighed deeply. “Yeah, I know what you an.”
The younger man took a deep, shaky breath. ”It’s like the walls have ears and eyes… I don’t know… so seriously bad juju. It’s like the Aether is sickly down there. Especially around the first few floors.”
”Co on. Let’s just get back to work. Lest the walls hear us talking about them.” The older man teased. They chatted a bit more, though nothing else was of note. Definitely so kind of Magi or Adept though… probably the latter. I hadn’t seen any Magi when I was there. Interesting that they decided to only hire out Adepts.
I got back to work after that. I went ahead and finished the second secret door using the sa entry thod as the first, blocking off the access to the Underground behind the wall. It was dual purpose in blocking off a section behind the speakeasy to put down a bed and so other supplies for a temporary stay as well as blocking off the Underground in case sothing ca up.
Speaking of in case sothing ca up, I scraped so of the bookshelves that were in better condition and made a temporary trapdoor over the hole with so spare hinges. It wouldn’t offer much if any resistance, but hopefully hearing it get destroyed would alert to sothing or soone coming up.
It was a valid concern, though not very likely. Most of the chanisms I’d spent the last week working on were ant for down there in the first place. If everything worked out, no one and no thing would ever know the route was there. But it would take a while to get everything down there, not to ntion the danger increasing, so I would finish up working up here first.
There were a few other security features I’d like to add, but the one I wanted the most would be impossible. At least, for now. I’d love to get a Hibisen plant and put it outside of the broom closet’s door. Just on the apartnt side though. rcs and various people of the field were more likely to pass through the Underground. A Hibisen plant would work down there, but it would also pull attention from any Magi or Adept in the know.
Hibisen plants would be hard to get, but I could just go steal one from the Circle. Unfortunately, with the mysterious fire wiping out the base Hope and I hit, there was little chance of easily obtaining one. I guess I could maybe go and track down a Circle hideout on my own? Might earn so brownie points with the Inquisitor if I found one, at least.
I went around and picked up all the useless clutter and skeletons, tossing them down the chute into the Underground. I’d dispose of most of them better down there. It’d be way easier to get rid of a couple dozen skeletons in the Underground than to sneak them back through the apartnt.
I kept a few of the tables that were in better shape, naly the two that were made of tal, as well as the bar itself. It wasn’t in the best shape, but it was still good enough to use for my purposes. That, and it would be a pain in the ass to get it cleared out.
The speakeasy looked… well, I wouldn’t say nice, per se. Ash still covered plenty of surfaces and would be a pain to clean up fully. Other than that though, I got rid of all the clutter around, allowing a fairly large area for to fill up with my tools.
With all the clutter cleaned up and my safety secured, I was all too happy to finally start looking for the several secret stashes hidden all over the place.
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